Extended

I officially extended my flight back home on Friday and it's a relief to finally come to a decision about it.  I was half set on leaving Singapore for Vietnam tomorrow and then fly back to LA on Thursday (with a few days to buffer my travel) but as I got closer to my leave date, the more anxious I got.  It's bizarre to think that I am supposed to be leaving tomorrow because I'm sitting here watching my friends play virtual golf after going out for a big bowl of Ramen.  Despite my disappointment of not seeing my friends and family in beautiful California, I'm happy with my decision.

Salad in Singapore

It seems that salad falls on my list of foods that are difficult to find (along with tacos, burritos, In N Out, and good Italian).  So when I came across a salad bar today, I got super excited despite the high price tag for veggies.  It reminded me of Sixth College at UCSD, where you could mix your own salad and they tossed it for you with dressing.  So, my craving combined with nostalgia made me buy a compulsive salad that I ended up carrying around with me for the rest of the day.  However, when it came to actually deciding what to put in it, I got a bit overwhelmed and just added everything that I liked:

Edamame
Red Beets
Onions
Mangos
Grapes
Tomatoes
Extra tomatoes
Raisins
Cranberries
Cucumbers

And probably more.  Unfortunately, it didnt end up tasting very good.  I guess there is such thing as too much of a good thing...or maybe its too many good things (at once) for me.

Questions and Answers

I hear a lot of the same phrases time and time again:
"You are crazy."
"Your'e so lucky."
"How are you able to travel for so long?"
"How do you have the money?"
"Where do you stay?"
"What do you do?"
"I wish I could do what you're doing."

I'll address a few of these:

"You are crazy."  

Maybe.  I think, to be more descriptive, I'm being adventurous, risky, and a bit reckless.  Why?  Because life hasn't been going according to plan, so I can't find justification in trying to stick with it.

"You're so lucky."

Yes, I really am.  I am a very lucky lucky girl to be able to have supportive friends, family and amazing opportunities (ie: traveling to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, etc).  To be fair, I've also come across some bad luck.  Examples would be messing up my knee, being sick more often than normal, chipping my tooth, missing two flights, having cancelled flights, etc etc...it's easy to get caught up in the bad luck, but I have to remember all the good, too!

"How are you able to travel for so long?"

"How do you have the money?"

"Where do you stay?"

I'm just bunching these three together because I can answer all in one go.  Unlike some speculations, I actually saved up my own money for the past year.  I also had a savings account I never touched but kept for several years and inevitably had to tap into when I made the big decision to stay abroad longer.  So savings combined with generous friends who let me stay at their places = stretched budgeting.  Yes, it's scary and risky, especially for someone like me who likes having a solid plan, but money is money and it's something I can make back (I hope).

"What do you do?"

These days, a lot of job hunting.  I also like to aggressively keep in touch with friends back home aka Facebook stalk people.  I also like to eat a lot; I gained weight in Asia.  I take photos, though not enough.  I go out on weekends mostly and try to recruit girls for our group.  I should really do more.

"I wish I could do what you're doing."

You know, I hear this allll the time...and the annoying truth is, you CAN.  I did it; I am doing it, so can anyone else. However, I understand that unlike me, most people have jobs and responsibilities.  I'm just saying that many of these responsible adults hate their jobs and live with a slight regret of never traveling.  If you really wanted to, you could.  As for accommodation, check out www.couchsurfing.org.  It's a great site that is dedicated to connecting people all over the world and safe about it.

I'm trying to stay young and grow up at the same time.

Anyways, the real purpose of this post was to cover this past weekend.  Saturday was pretty important to me because I wanted to take my generous and gracious hosts out as a small thank you for letting me stay with them for so long.  Singapore was actually more of a last minute escape plan, but they have been so good to me to let me stay for such a ridiculous amount of time and help me get back on my feet.

As a quick recap, we went to Lantern, which is this lovely lounge bar a the top of the Fullerton Bay Hotel that has a great view of Marina Bay.  Of course, I didn't take any photos of the actual lounge itself, so I'll have to do that next time.  I reserved a couple bay couches for us and ordered a Rose to chill out before heading to Ku De Ta (again).  Adam has been awesome at getting us in and so I really wanted to take my friends up there before I left Singapore since it's so difficult otherwise.

A different angle of the Sands.

After, we headed to Stereolab and supper at Netwon Hawker Center.  Aaand now I'm too tired to keep typing.  The end.  For now.

F1 Weekend

I've been procrastinating my post on the Grand Prix weekend because...well, I didn't really partake much in it.  I think know why its done at night though; it would be way too hot if done during the day!

There were just massive amounts of people walking around.  It was actually a very pleasant night...probably equal to a warm summer's night in California, but all the bodies created this gross too-close-for-comfort heat.  So we decided to escape to a hotel bar for a couple hours before the preliminaries began.  

Passed a very enthusiastic dude along the way...

We ended up at the Mandarin Oriental...or was it the Mandarin Hotel?  Something like that, there are 3 Mandarin hotels in Singapore.  Turns out there is a sweet lounge that is located right above one of the race track's turns:

So we didn't see Adam Lambert perform (not a huge loss on my end) and ended up watching F1 from an air conditioned lounge with wine, music and soft couches.  Why did we even bother to buy tickets?

We were given these beautiful complimentary h'orderves but I was disappointed to say that they were downright awful!  =( 

Leaving the hotel to catch a taxi to the Sands Hotel was the challenging part.  Since the weekend attracted a huge influx of tourists and most of the area was blocked off and rerouted, finding a taxi to get to where you wanted to go was a hassle.  We waited over a half hour for a taxi at the hotel and even then, it took us ages to get to the Sands (which we could see in plain sight from where we stood!).  

BUT, it was totally worth it because while we were waiting, guess who came out of the hotel and strolled into a waiting taxi that was right in front of me?  Ron Weasley!  Okay, I forget his actual name (I'm awful, I know) but the actor from the Harry Potter movies walked by and I was like, "Hey, it's Ron Weasley!"  I'm not that smooth, what can I say.  At least I didn't ask for a photo.  I have a little bit of pride, somewhat.  The other guys didn't believe me at first but they looked and were like, "Oh hey, it is..."  Obviously, I was the only one impressed.  What can I say, I'm a big fan.

Afterwards, we were able to get up to Ku De Ta (the new venue on top of the Sands Hotel) and see the racetracks from there as well...we probably should have watched it from there if we had known we could have gotten in!

I have to say that I've been pretty lucky to be able to go up to the top of Sands so many times already.